


After Six Years

by suplup



Category: AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game)
Genre: AI: The Somnium Files Spoilers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25429675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suplup/pseuds/suplup
Summary: After the conclusion of the game, when everyone's happy and healthy together, Date and Hitomi are in a pseudo-dating relationship and Date's worried about making it more official.
Relationships: Aiba & Date Kaname, Date Kaname/Sagan Hitomi, aiba/date/hitomi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	After Six Years

**Author's Note:**

> Initially written for aivember day 8 on tumblr. One of my first fanworks and even all these months later I still think it's really good.
> 
> Spoiler Warning for Ai: the Somnium Files

“So Uncle, when you and Mom get married, would you prefer I call you Dad, or Papa?”

Iris and Date were sitting at a small cafe, just chatting over some lunch. Iris loved to bring up Date and Hitomi’s old relationship every so often. Sure, he isn’t the same guy he was six years ago, but he was close enough. Like discount brand Yagyu, and they can work it out, they still clearly love each other. At least that’s what Iris thought.

Date sighed, “I’d rather you not even call me Uncle, to be honest. It still feels weird.”

“But you are my Uncle, and you have been for the past six years.”

“Past few months you mean.” 

“Uncle! Just because you switched bodies with someone and lost all of your memories and then switched back into your own body doesn’t mean you’re not my Uncle. You can’t escape your fate!” As she said this she crumpled up her napkin and threw it at Date.

“Alright, I’m out of here, looks like you’re done eating.” Date stood up and walked away.

“Woah, hey! Don’t leave me! You’ve at least gotta drive me home!” Iris ran out after him.

————————

Hitomi and Mizuki were sitting at the Sagan residence, having some tea.

“Mizuki, what do you think I should do?”

“I don’t know, what’s wrong?”

Hitomi was fidgeting with her hand, “It’s, um, about Date.”

“What, do you still want to date him? After you’ve seen how stupid he can get?”

Hitomi blushed, “That’s one of the things I love about him. He might be silly sometimes but he’s always so earnest and caring that I can’t help but love him.”  
“I think you’re crazy.”

“Crazy people do stupid things when they’re in love, haven’t you heard that before?”

Mizuki gave her a look, “I don’t think that’s how the saying goes exactly. Are you ok? Has Date done something to you?”

Hitomi stared wistfully at the picture on the wall, “You’ll probably understand when you get older, Mizuki.”

“You’re weird, why are all adults weird?”

————————

“Do you think I should, Moma?”

“Ok Date, before I answer that let me ask you this. Why do you think you shouldn’t?”

Date and Moma were at Marble, drinking and chatting and having a good time, generally.

“Well, I do think that she’s a wonderful woman, and if she were anyone else, I would in a heartbeat.”

“Sounds like you have your answer.”

“But at the same time,” Date dragged out the last word. He still felt guilty about having shot her arm, and him being the reason why it can’t function. He also still isn’t sure if he can separate himself from his past self enough to differentiate themselves to Hitomi.

Before he could continue though, Moma interrupted him, “I’m gonna stop you right there, because you just talked about how you would date her, and I’ve heard your reasons for why you don’t think you should many times now.”

Moma turned to his drinking buddy, and put a hand on his shoulder, “Listen, you can’t say that you’re different than Falco, and in the same sentence talk about things that Falco did. If you say that you’re not Falco, then you’re not Falco. You’re Kaname Freaking Date, Ace Detective. You saved Hitomi’s life, and Tesa’s! Even if you still feel a smidgen of guilt, then I can guarantee on my life that they both have forgiven you for everything. You’ve done a lot for them, Date. You can’t forget about all of that.

“Date, you’re a good guy, and she’s a wonderful girl. She’s nice, caring, and funny. You get along amazingly with her daughter, and she gets along amazingly with your daughter. Even better, your daughters are like the best of friends with each other. You’re already one big happy family in spirit, why don’t you just make it official?”

“Yeah … Yeah, you’re right! Of course!” Date turned to Mama, polishing her bonito. “Mama, another drink to celebrate please!”

“Oh no honey, you go and woo your girl when you sober up. Take the rest of the night off and get ready for your date tomorrow.”

————————

“Aiba, you’re ok with this right?”

“I do not see why I would not be.”

“Well it’s just, when things like this have come up before, you usually got jealous.”

“I— I never got jealous!”

Date turned to look at Aiba’s projection in the passenger seat of his car, “Then why are you blushing?”

She pouted and folded her arms, “I am not blushing, you are just seeing things.”

“I can only see what you show me, you know,” Date said, smiling smugly. “Ow!”

Aiba had sent him a small shock, “Keep your eyes on the road, Date. Do not think that I am feeling jealous of your relationship with Hitomi.”

“Well, I’ll have to ask Hitomi about this but, would you wanna date us together? Or something like that?”

Aiba blushed even more furiously, “W-what??! Can people do that?”

“Well, there’s no law that says we can’t. And you’ve been my partner for so long that those three months without you were just so empty.” Date took a short pause. “Aiba, I do love you, and you’re very important to me. If you want to try and have a more serious relationship I’m willing to give it a shot, whatever that would entail.” Date himself was blushing quite a bit at this point.

However she was completely red in the face. “D-Date you can’t just s-say things like that! H-how am I supposed to respond??”

“I know I just sprung that on you really suddenly, but think about it. I still have to talk to Hitomi about it still, but I think she’ll be open to it. She loves you too.”

“And how would you know that, Date? We only just were reunited.”

“We talked a lot about you during those three months, over dinner and what not while Iris and Mizuki were hanging out or things like that.”

“Date I thought you were going to go ask her out for the first date right now.”

“Yeah they weren’t dates or anything I would just go over there to keep her company and we would just chat about stuff and things. Sometimes I would drive her to the hospital with Mizuki so we could see Iris.”

Aiba turned and stared at Date, her face scrunched up in confusion.

He turned to look back at her, also confused, “What?”

“Date you’re on your way to ask this woman on a date but you sound like an old married couple.”

“What? No we don’t! Do old married couples drive each other to and from work? Do old married couples have spare rooms for each other at their own homes? Do old married couples babysit the other person’s kid?”

“Yes? Those are all things married couples do? At least if they don’t live together they do.”

As they were driving, Date’s face lit up in realization and he immediately turned around and drove off elsewhere.

“Date, where are you going?”

“I need your help with something really quick.”

————————

After a few quick stops, Date and Aiba arrive at the Sagan residence. “Date, your blood pressure is rising.”

“Yeah I’m a little nervous here. I don’t know how things are going to go.”

“If I had to make a guess, I think that you have little to worry about.”

“Yeah that little is a big!”

“You will be fine, I suggest you take some deep breaths and go.”

“I think I’ll do that,” taking some deep breaths, he thought of the past few months and really looked at what’s been happening. All the times he’s been here, all the times she’s been at his place. Hanging out with Iris, seeing her with Mizuki. Talking to her about nothing, listening to her talk about everything. He knows how she likes her tea, and she makes his favorite tea perfectly.

He brushed his hands on his pants, and knocked on the door. “Coming,” he heard from somewhere inside.

Hitomi opened the door, wearing her favorite sweater. Date felt a bit overdressed, in his new suit. “Oh, Date!” She started blushing a bit, Date was handsome already, but like this? “What brings you here?”

“Oh I was just in the neighborhood, and I felt like coming over and hanging out a bit, are you free?”

“Of course, I was just thinking about what I wanted to do this weekend, come on in.” She opened the door further and let him in. He went right away to his favorite spot on the sofa and took a seat. The house still had that familiar smell to it, a light floral scent. “Shall I put some tea on?”

“No if you don’t have plans already I was thinking we could go out someplace?”

Oh no, is he asking her out? Is it time? Her face turned redder, she had to sit down, “O-oh, sure! Where, um, where did you have in mind?”

“I’ve got a few places in mind we can pick from, but before that I need to introduce you to someone.”

What? She wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but as he reached towards his eye, she figured it out.

Taking out his fake eye and placing it on the table, Aiba took on her gummy bear form. “Hello, my name is Aiba, I am an artificial intelligence who serves as Date’s left eye, partner, and companion. It is my pleasure to formally introduce myself to you.”

Hitomi looked back and forth between Aiba and Date, “So this is Aiba? She’s adorable.” Looking directly at Aiba, she continued, “Date’s told me a lot about you, I’m glad I was able to actually meet you too.” She bent down and patted Aiba on the head.

“Hey, that tickles.”

Date picked her up and put her back in his eye socket, “So basically, in addition to introducing you to her, I wanted to double check something with you.” He shifted forward on the sofa and continued, “If we’re ever together, so is Aiba, and I want to make sure that’s ok with you. She’ll basically end up being our third partner.”

“That’s fine with me, Date. I’m sure she’ll be glad to be included.”

Aiba quickly told Date, “Do not tell her anything.”

“She’s very excited,” he said smugly.

“Date!”

————————

Once they decided on somewhere to go, and Hitomi had Iris help her into a nice, fancy dress, they set out for dinner at a nice, fancy restaurant. The atmosphere was nice, the music was romantic, the food smelled delicious.

“So this time we went to my choice, where would you like to go next time?”

Hitomi giggled, “Well maybe we could go see a movie or something, or go to a garden, or perhaps the zoo? Oh, what about the shrine? Also there’s a play next week that I’d love to attend.”

“Woah, that’s a lot of options.”

“I may have been thinking about this stuff for a while,” she blushed.

“No, don’t worry about it, it’s cute.”

Now she was covering her face with her hand, “Date you can’t say things like that.”

“Aiba said the same thing to me.”

“So what made you decide to actually ask me out, I remember you being very on the fence about the whole thing.”

“Well I went around talking to some people because you know one of the things I was most worried about, were things that I did as Falco. But after talking it out with people, they reminded me that I’m not Falco. I might have been at one point, but that was over six years ago, and I’m Date now, not anyone else,” he looked into her eyes. “And Date really wanted to go out on a date with you.”

As he said that, his eye fell out of its socket and dropped down under the table. “Oh shoot!” Date scrambled after Aiba.

After feeling around for her under the table, he put her on the table but kept his hand covering her so she couldn’t roll away. Hitomi could hear Aiba from underneath, “He really wanted to date you, Hitomi. So much so that he got you this.” As she said that, Date lifted his hand to reveal a velvet box, and inside was Aiba in her gummy form holding a golden ring.

Hitomi could only stare and gape at it, tears welling up in her eyes and her breathing picking up.

“Mizuki once told me that family is a perfectly ordinary relationship in the most ordinary way. And when I was on my way to ask you out, Aiba and I were talking, and I realized, that’s all we’ve been doing, she even said we were acting like an old married couple. And I was inclined to agree. So here I am asking you, would you want to join me in a perfectly ordinary relationship?”

Hitomi could only nod, she was crying and fanning her face. This is what she was waiting for, for those six years. Towards the end of those years, she was getting ready to pop the question to him herself. But now, after being with him again, her feelings had only magnified. She couldn’t do anything but cry right now she was so happy.

Aiba took the gold ring, and wobbled over to Hitomi, who managed to steady her hand for a moment, so Aiba could slip the ring onto her finger. “Date had me help him pick out the ring, so that it would be from the both of us.”

Hitomi was openly sobbing at this point, and the waiter brought over a handkerchief for her. This was easily one of the happiest days of her life, and to come so soon right after her daughter got out of the hospital, she would never forget these past few days.


End file.
